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The Rules of Pacers Digest

Hello everyone,

Whether your are a long standing forum member or whether you have just registered today, it's a good idea to read and review the rules below so that you have a very good idea of what to expect when you come to Pacers Digest.

A quick note to new members: Your posts will not immediately show up when you make them. An administrator has to approve at least your first post before the forum software will later upgrade your account to the status of a fully-registered member. This usually happens within a couple of hours or so after your post(s) is/are approved, so you may need to be a little patient at first.

Why do we do this? So that it's more difficult for spammers (be they human or robot) to post, and so users who are banned cannot immediately re-register and start dousing people with verbal flames.

Below are the rules of Pacers Digest. After you have read them, you will have a very good sense of where we are coming from, what we expect, what we don't want to see, and how we react to things.

Rule #1

Pacers Digest is intended to be a place to discuss basketball without having to deal with the kinds of behaviors or attitudes that distract people from sticking with the discussion of the topics at hand. These unwanted distractions can come in many forms, and admittedly it can sometimes be tricky to pin down each and every kind that can rear its ugly head, but we feel that the following examples and explanations cover at least a good portion of that ground and should at least give people a pretty good idea of the kinds of things we actively discourage:

"Anyone who __________ is a liar / a fool / an idiot / a blind homer / has their head buried in the sand / a blind hater / doesn't know basketball / doesn't watch the games"

"People with intelligence will agree with me when I say that __________"

"Only stupid people think / believe / do ___________"

"I can't wait to hear something from PosterX when he/she sees that **insert a given incident or current event that will have probably upset or disappointed PosterX here**"

"He/she is just delusional"

"This thread is stupid / worthless / embarrassing"

"I'm going to take a moment to point and / laugh at PosterX / GroupOfPeopleY who thought / believed *insert though/belief here*"

"Remember when PosterX said OldCommentY that no longer looks good? "

In general, if a comment goes from purely on topic to something 'ad hominem' (personal jabs, personal shots, attacks, flames, however you want to call it, towards a person, or a group of people, or a given city/state/country of people), those are most likely going to be found intolerable.

We also dissuade passive aggressive behavior. This can be various things, but common examples include statements that are basically meant to imply someone is either stupid or otherwise incapable of holding a rational conversation. This can include (but is not limited to) laughing at someone's conclusions rather than offering an honest rebuttal, asking people what game they were watching, or another common problem is Poster X will say "that player isn't that bad" and then Poster Y will say something akin to "LOL you think that player is good". We're not going to tolerate those kinds of comments out of respect for the community at large and for the sake of trying to just have an honest conversation.

Now, does the above cover absolutely every single kind of distraction that is unwanted? Probably not, but you should by now have a good idea of the general types of things we will be discouraging. The above examples are meant to give you a good feel for / idea of what we're looking for. If something new or different than the above happens to come along and results in the same problem (that being, any other attitude or behavior that ultimately distracts from actually just discussing the topic at hand, or that is otherwise disrespectful to other posters), we can and we will take action to curb this as well, so please don't take this to mean that if you managed to technically avoid saying something exactly like one of the above examples that you are then somehow off the hook.

That all having been said, our goal is to do so in a generally kind and respectful way, and that doesn't mean the moment we see something we don't like that somebody is going to be suspended or banned, either. It just means that at the very least we will probably say something about it, quite possibly snipping out the distracting parts of the post in question while leaving alone the parts that are actually just discussing the topics, and in the event of a repeating or excessive problem, then we will start issuing infractions to try to further discourage further repeat problems, and if it just never seems to improve, then finally suspensions or bans will come into play. We would prefer it never went that far, and most of the time for most of our posters, it won't ever have to.

A slip up every once and a while is pretty normal, but, again, when it becomes repetitive or excessive, something will be done. Something occasional is probably going to be let go (within reason), but when it starts to become habitual or otherwise a pattern, odds are very good that we will step in.

There's always a small minority that like to push people's buttons and/or test their own boundaries with regards to the administrators, and in the case of someone acting like that, please be aware that this is not a court of law, but a private website run by people who are simply trying to do the right thing as they see it. If we feel that you are a special case that needs to be dealt with in an exceptional way because your behavior isn't explicitly mirroring one of our above examples of what we generally discourage, we can and we will take atypical action to prevent this from continuing if you are not cooperative with us.

Also please be aware that you will not be given a pass simply by claiming that you were 'only joking,' because quite honestly, when someone really is just joking, for one thing most people tend to pick up on the joke, including the person or group that is the target of the joke, and for another thing, in the event where an honest joke gets taken seriously and it upsets or angers someone, the person who is truly 'only joking' will quite commonly go out of his / her way to apologize and will try to mend fences. People who are dishonest about their statements being 'jokes' do not do so, and in turn that becomes a clear sign of what is really going on. It's nothing new.

In any case, quite frankly, the overall quality and health of the entire forum's community is more important than any one troublesome user will ever be, regardless of exactly how a problem is exhibiting itself, and if it comes down to us having to make a choice between you versus the greater health and happiness of the entire community, the community of this forum will win every time.

Lastly, there are also some posters, who are generally great contributors and do not otherwise cause any problems, who sometimes feel it's their place to provoke or to otherwise 'mess with' that small minority of people described in the last paragraph, and while we possibly might understand why you might feel you WANT to do something like that, the truth is we can't actually tolerate that kind of behavior from you any more than we can tolerate the behavior from them. So if we feel that you are trying to provoke those other posters into doing or saying something that will get themselves into trouble, then we will start to view you as a problem as well, because of the same reason as before: The overall health of the forum comes first, and trying to stir the pot with someone like that doesn't help, it just makes it worse. Some will simply disagree with this philosophy, but if so, then so be it because ultimately we have to do what we think is best so long as it's up to us.

If you see a problem that we haven't addressed, the best and most appropriate course for a forum member to take here is to look over to the left of the post in question. See underneath that poster's name, avatar, and other info, down where there's a little triangle with an exclamation point (!) in it? Click that. That allows you to report the post to the admins so we can definitely notice it and give it a look to see what we feel we should do about it. Beyond that, obviously it's human nature sometimes to want to speak up to the poster in question who has bothered you, but we would ask that you try to refrain from doing so because quite often what happens is two or more posters all start going back and forth about the original offending post, and suddenly the entire thread is off topic or otherwise derailed. So while the urge to police it yourself is understandable, it's best to just report it to us and let us handle it. Thank you!

All of the above is going to be subject to a case by case basis, but generally and broadly speaking, this should give everyone a pretty good idea of how things will typically / most often be handled.

Rule #2

If the actions of an administrator inspire you to make a comment, criticism, or express a concern about it, there is a wrong place and a couple of right places to do so.

The wrong place is to do so in the original thread in which the administrator took action. For example, if a post gets an infraction, or a post gets deleted, or a comment within a larger post gets clipped out, in a thread discussing Paul George, the wrong thing to do is to distract from the discussion of Paul George by adding your off topic thoughts on what the administrator did.

The right places to do so are:

A) Start a thread about the specific incident you want to talk about on the Feedback board. This way you are able to express yourself in an area that doesn't throw another thread off topic, and this way others can add their two cents as well if they wish, and additionally if there's something that needs to be said by the administrators, that is where they will respond to it.

B) Send a private message to the administrators, and they can respond to you that way.

If this is done the wrong way, those comments will be deleted, and if it's a repeating problem then it may also receive an infraction as well.

Rule #3

If a poster is bothering you, and an administrator has not or will not deal with that poster to the extent that you would prefer, you have a powerful tool at your disposal, one that has recently been upgraded and is now better than ever: The ability to ignore a user.

When you ignore a user, you will unfortunately still see some hints of their existence (nothing we can do about that), however, it does the following key things:

A) Any post they make will be completely invisible as you scroll through a thread.

B) The new addition to this feature: If someone QUOTES a user you are ignoring, you do not have to read who it was, or what that poster said, unless you go out of your way to click on a link to find out who it is and what they said.

To utilize this feature, from any page on Pacers Digest, scroll to the top of the page, look to the top right where it says 'Settings' and click that. From the settings page, look to the left side of the page where it says 'My Settings', and look down from there until you see 'Edit Ignore List' and click that. From here, it will say 'Add a Member to Your List...' Beneath that, click in the text box to the right of 'User Name', type in or copy & paste the username of the poster you are ignoring, and once their name is in the box, look over to the far right and click the 'Okay' button. All done!

Rule #4

Regarding infractions, currently they carry a value of one point each, and that point will expire in 31 days. If at any point a poster is carrying three points at the same time, that poster will be suspended until the oldest of the three points expires.

Rule #5

When you share or paste content or articles from another website, you must include the URL/link back to where you found it, who wrote it, and what website it's from. Said content will be removed if this doesn't happen.

An example:

If I copy and paste an article from the Indianapolis Star website, I would post something like this:

We cannot tolerate illegal videos on Pacers Digest. This means do not share any links to them, do not mention any websites that host them or link to them, do not describe how to find them in any way, and do not ask about them. Posts doing anything of the sort will be removed, the offenders will be contacted privately, and if the problem becomes habitual, you will be suspended, and if it still persists, you will probably be banned.

The legal means of watching or listening to NBA games are NBA League Pass Broadband (for US, or for International; both cost money) and NBA Audio League Pass (which is free). Look for them on NBA.com.

Rule #7

Provocative statements in a signature, or as an avatar, or as the 'tagline' beneath a poster's username (where it says 'Member' or 'Administrator' by default, if it is not altered) are an unwanted distraction that will more than likely be removed on sight. There can be shades of gray to this, but in general this could be something political or religious that is likely going to provoke or upset people, or otherwise something that is mean-spirited at the expense of a poster, a group of people, or a population.

It may or may not go without saying, but this goes for threads and posts as well, particularly when it's not made on the off-topic board (Market Square).

We do make exceptions if we feel the content is both innocuous and unlikely to cause social problems on the forum (such as wishing someone a Merry Christmas or a Happy Easter), and we also also make exceptions if such topics come up with regards to a sports figure (such as the Lance Stephenson situation bringing up discussions of domestic abuse and the law, or when Jason Collins came out as gay and how that lead to some discussion about gay rights).

However, once the discussion seems to be more/mostly about the political issues instead of the sports figure or his specific situation, the thread is usually closed.

Rule #8

We prefer self-restraint and/or modesty when making jokes or off topic comments in a sports discussion thread. They can be fun, but sometimes they derail or distract from a topic, and we don't want to see that happen. If we feel it is a problem, we will either delete or move those posts from the thread.

Rule #9

Generally speaking, we try to be a "PG-13" rated board, and we don't want to see sexual content or similarly suggestive content. Vulgarity is a more muddled issue, though again we prefer things to lean more towards "PG-13" than "R". If we feel things have gone too far, we will step in.

Rule #10

We like small signatures, not big signatures. The bigger the signature, the more likely it is an annoying or distracting signature.

Rule #11

Do not advertise anything without talking about it with the administrators first. This includes advertising with your signature, with your avatar, through private messaging, and/or by making a thread or post.

4-21-04 Knicks, Celtics proving they don't belong

If the NBA is going to let the New York Knicks (39-43) and the Boston Celtics (36-46) into the playoffs, then the least it can do is match them up against each other, so they don't ruin it for the rest of us.

As it stands, both teams are a combined 0-4 against the Nets and Pacers, respectively, with an average margin of defeat of 17.7 points and are now the most dangerous teams in the NBA.

"If we can take one of their guys out of the game by being physical with them, then that's definitely an advantage for us," Thomas told the New York Times. "We were hitting hard. We were laying some wood out there."

Thomas said that before Tuesday night's Game 2, a 99-81 loss to the Nets and, of course, after the Nets' 107-83 rout in Game 1. But he could also have said it after the Nets beat New York 108-83 on April 2, their final meeting of the regular season. Or on March 28, 2003, when the Nets smashed the Knicks 122-101 in the final regular-season meeting of that season. How about the 105-76 thrashing on Feb. 26 of that year? Or the 115-93 whipping of Feb. 22, 2002?

In all, the Nets have beaten the Knicks 12 of the last 14 times they've met, the only two victories coming this year, when Nets all-stars Jason Kidd and Kenyon Martin were both out injured, and last year, when Allan Houston hit a running jumper with 36 seconds left for a 101-99 victory.

Other than that, the Nets have beaten the Knicks by an average of 17.4 points per game over the last three years.

Regular season or playoffs. In New Jersey or at Madison Square Garden. It doesn't matter. The Knicks do not belong on the same floor with the Nets.

Don't get me wrong. I'm all for the underdog, and still remember Knick back-up center Dikembe Mutombo, then the starting center for the eighth-seeded Denver Nuggets, clutching the ball on his back after his team upset the No. 1 seeded Seattle SuperSonics.

But this is different.

This is as different as Brandon Hunter and Jermaine O'Neal.

By now we know that in the first game of their matchup, Hunter grabbed O'Neal and tossed him to the floor, prompting Ron Artest to temporarily leave the bench and eventually get suspended for Game 2.

But even without Artest, the Pacers still beat the Celtics 103-90 Tuesday night, a nearly identical score to the 104-88 outcome of Game 1.

"We knew he was sent in to shake it up. This is the NBA," said O'Neal. "Each team has a person that's supposed to do that. I just have to do a better job keeping myself focused. If I get thrown out, our loss is greater than theirs."

What you may not know is that Hunter scored 125 points this year and grabbed 118 rebounds. In the playoffs, he's totaled two points and one rebound.

On the other hand, O'Neal scored 1,566 points and grabbed 778 rebounds on his way to becoming an MVP candidate. In this year's playoffs, he's totaled 46 points and 22 rebounds in two games. Artest was recently crowned the NBA's Defensive Player of the Year and rang up 24 points, six rebounds, five assists and two blocks in that first game.

But that's not the only difference.

The Knicks and Hunter aren't the most dangerous entities in the NBA because they can beat the Nets or stop O'Neal and not because of what they can do to Jason Kidd or Richard Jefferson or O'Neal.

They are the most dangerous people because of what they can do to the NBA, since there are no longer any consequences.

Fine them, suspend them, kick them out of the playoffs for good. It's too late. The Knicks are going to lose no matter what, and Hunter is still the third-to-last player selected in the second round of the last draft, who didn't play a single minute in Game 2. They had little or no chance coming into these games, and the last four contests have only confirmed that.

But what happens if Kidd ends up injured? What do we do if Artest gets suspended again? How about Martin taking revenge on Chauncey Billups? All of a sudden we're a Tim Duncan knee injury away from proclaiming the Miami Heat the 2004 NBA Champs with a 42-40 regular season record.

Meanwhile, the 42-40 Utah Jazz are wondering why they have to sit home and watch the Knicks and Celtics.

* Big Talk, No Action as Knicks Go Quietly
Chris Broussard / New York Times

Peep Show

NBA Insider
Wednesday, April 21
Updated: April 21
8:35 AM ET

Miami Heat: Apparently, there will be no mercy from the Heat for Baron Davis and his sore ankle. "When he goes to the hole, foul him," Heat forward Lamar Odom said in the Palm Beach Post. "Use your fouls. Take charges on him. Just try to wear him down. Ball goes up, look for him. See a little point guard, you hit him. Just things like that throughout the game where you can wear him down. Anytime you have a dynamic player like that, you have to do that." No mercy at all. "I saw him fall, and I saw him tweak his ankle," Dwyane Wade said. "At the same time, I've seen him out there on the court hitting threes. I've got to continue to play and not worry about whether he's hurt."

Hill
Orlando Magic: It only hurts when Grant Hill laughs. "I can get through metal detectors (at airports) without getting stopped," Hill said of his ankle with five screws to Florida Today. "But we'll have to wait and see how it holds up running on it every day." So don't you start laughing, too, when he says he's coming back next year. "Grant is arguably the best he's been," Weisbrod said. "I know it's easy for people to roll their eyes or be cynical because we've been through this so many times, but he feels great. He doesn't have that pain and throbbing and need to ice immediately after working out. The doctors say his pictures look better than they ever have in the past. There are a lot of positive parts to that, but obviously a world-class athlete looking to put the impact on his body with all that hardware, surgeries and damage done, I'd guess it's still a 50-50 proposition."

Detroit Pistons: This love triangle at power forward seems to be working for Detroit. "He's a young guy," Pistons president Joe Dumars said in the Detroit News of Mehmet Okur. "He understands the circumstances here. He just happens to be playing behind two of the premier players in the league in Rasheed and Ben Wallace. Our feelings for him are as strong as they've ever been . . . The question of whether there's room and a place ... that's what this team is built on -- depth. Size, depth, talent. So there's always going to be a place for that here. We made that abundantly clear to Memo and all his people around him."

Utah Jazz: For all the Jazz care, the NBA can take its Coach of the Year award and shove it. "I can't rate this year above any of the others, to be honest," said assistant coach Phil Johnson in the Salt Lake Tribune. "He's been the same guy, doing the same job, for a long time. Whether you get recognized or not doesn't diminish your career, and his career speaks for itself." It would have been nice if Sloan was recognized instead of Hubie Brown "but it's just an award," Johnson continued. "It's a nice award, but you know what? I would exchange [my] trophy for his career. That's the important thing, and Jerry's career achievement says a lot more about what kind of coach he is."

Thomas
New York Knicks: While the Knicks were getting their butts kicked on the basketball floor, Tim Thomas was still trying to recover from his. "He's sore," head coach Lenny Wilkins said in Newsday. "He's been in treatment three times a day, so I'm hoping he'll start to feel better. He walked a little better [Monday]. When you land on a tailbone, you're sore and you're tight in [the lower back]. He's a guy that is a jump shooter and goes to the basket. He would need that." And Wilkins can only pray that he can play in the third game. "I hope not, but I don't know," the coach said.

Los Angeles Lakers: The Lakers power forward is hurt. No, not that power forward. "I would feel better if Slava (Medvedenko) hadn't hurt himself in the game last night," Phil Jackson told the Los Angeles Times of Medvedenko. "He's no better today. That's a concern for us. We hope the time he has to & recover is going to be adequate. We may have to watch him very closely Friday in that ballgame . . . It's obviously a very serious situation. The Achilles' is one of those injuries you really have to be careful with."

New Orleans Hornets: Jamal Mashburn has been banished from the Hornets' presence after making critical comments of the team. "It came at an inopportune time for us. It was somewhat of a distraction for us, so he won't be with the team or on the bench with us," general manager Bob Bass said in the Miami Herald. "He's not on the playoff roster anyway. So he won't be with the team the rest of the playoffs." Mashburn said the team had misdiagnosed his injuries and didn't have his best interest at heart. "All I am worried about is this basketball team and our opponent [tonight]," head coach Tim Floyd said. "This is unfortunate, but it happened and we've got to move on."